LS polls: DK breaks record

Team Udayavani, Apr 19, 2019, 7:45 AM IST

Mangaluru: Quick and peaceful voting took place in Dakshina Kannada Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday. The district achieved a voter turnout of 77.78%. In comparison to 2014, this times voter turnout has increased and thereby has broken the previous record.

During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, 77.19% of voting had been achieved and it was then considered to be the highest in the state. Besides, it was the highest voter turnout recorded in the district since 1952. It is worth noticing that this time, 2014’s record has be broken.

On Thursday at 6 am in the morning, mock voting was conducted at all the 1,861 booths, in the presence of the booth agent representing the candidate. The public cast its vote from 7 am onwards. Most of the polling booths depicted people standing enthusiastically in queues to cast their franchise.

Peaceful voting

The deadline for voting was at 6 pm in the evening. Post the deadline, voters in the queue were provided the chance to cast their votes through chits. At some places, voting lasted till 7 pm. The district administration had taken widespread actions to ensure the peaceful conduction of voting devoid of any untoward incidents.

Altogether 16 control units, 16 ballot units and 38 VVPAT malfunctioned in the constituency and were soon replaced. On April 18^th, there were many wedding taking places at various locations in the district. Yet, there were some instances where, the bride and bridegroom carried out their duty to cast their votes either before their wedding or soon after their wedding, which is remarkable.

In Mangaluru, 100-years-old Kaeshava Kudwa from Chilimbi cast his vote at the pooling booth at Ladyhill School. 106-years-old Laxmi from Peraje in Bantwal taluk cast her franchise at the polling booth at Peraje here.

0.06% more in comparison to last time

In comparison to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, this time there has been an increase of 0.06% in voting. The complete statistics is yet to be revealed and there is a possibility that the number might increase slightly. 77.19% of voting had taken place in 2014. In comparison to 2018 Legislative Assembly elections, there is a drop by 0.38% in voting. 77.63% voting had been achieved in 2018.